y tired, and as
soon as we had finished our search we lay down to rest without any fear
of interruption. We younger ones should have slept on, I suspect, till
long after the sun was high in the heavens, had not Alick roused us up.

"Come, boys," he exclaimed, "turn out; we must have breakfast and begin
our voyage as soon as we can."

"I thought you said that we were to look out for wild-fowl," observed
Martin. "I suspect that if we don't in good time we shall have to go
without our dinner."

"We'll have breakfast, and then talk about that," said Alick. "I want
to feel that we really have begun the voyage."

Our breakfast was a very scanty one, though we had plenty of water to
wash it down; the last few morsels being given to Bouncer, who sat
wistfully looking up at us as we ate our food.

The canoe was at last carefully lifted into the water; Alick took the
steering-oar, and each of us three a paddle.

"Away then we go, boys; and I pray that we may have a successful
voyage," said Alick. As he spoke he gave a shove with his paddle, and
we dipping ours into the water, the canoe was soon in the middle of the
stream.

We glided on rapidly with the current till we came to the mouth of a
broad stream, which ran into it from the opposite side. As we looked up
it we caught sight of some white objects.

"They are swans," cried Alick, "and one of them will afford us an ample
dinner."

The difficulty, however, was to get near the birds, for they would take
to flight the moment they saw the canoe paddling towards them.
Fortunately the wind was up the stream.

"We will hoist the sail," said Alick, "and it will assist to conceal us,
while the canoe will glide noiselessly towards the swans."

We had two sticks, which we fixed in the gunwale of the canoe, setting
the sail between them. Though of a primitive nature, it had the
advantage of being lowered in a moment. This was very necessary in so
crank a craft as is a birch-bark canoe. We now allowed the canoe to
glide on, while we got our guns ready and watched the birds from under
the sail. They were mere specks of white in the distance, and as we
glided towards them we had no doubt that they were swans.

They must have seen the strange-looking object entering their river,
for, turning their arched necks from us, they began to swim up the
stream. A strong current was running down, which impeded our progress;
while they avoided it by keeping close to the bank, w